Monday Moonbeams / moon dust

I recently read an article about the findings of what is in our moon's dust. I had to share because it is just so interesting. Here's my paraphrasing of the article. The complete article is found right over here.

"With no atmosphere to intercept incoming meteorites, the surface of the moon would have been subjected to a 4. 5 billion year bombardment that would have produced a layer of dust far finer than sugar. That dust, the Apollo crewman found when they went out in it, did some strange things: it rose above the surface when disturbed and hung there far longer than could be explained by the moon's weak gravity, it crept deep into the cracks of anything it touched and clung there as if adhesively attached. Also it was FILLED with exquisitely fine green and orange glass beads, the products of superheated melting and cooling that followed impacts."

"Geologist Marek Zbik of Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia found that nanoparticles were creating the unusual qualities in the moon dust. He used an instrument known as a synchrotron-based nano tomograph - a piece of hardware that didn't exist when the Apollo crews landed on the moon. Zbik found tiny bubbles in the dirt that formed in a similar way that larger glass beads are formed, yet in the fiery heat of meteorite collisions. Instead of gas or vapor, the lunar bubbles were filled with a highly pourous network of alien-looking glassy particles which are the nanoparticles."

"It appears that the nanoparticles are formed inside the bubbles of molten rocks when meteorites hit the lunar surface. Then they are released when the glass bubbles are pulverized and the constant mixing develops a type of soil which is unknown on Earth." states Zbik.

The top photo is of the moon last night, on July 15, taken by Stojan Stojanovski and Igor Nastoski from Ohrid, Macedonia. It shows the occultation of Jupiter, it's moons, and Venus.

Found here. The second photo is said to be a print by NASA of the moon from an Apollo mission. More information found here.

 Well my lovelies, that's our moonology for the day! Have a great evening!

xo~ Tonya